Traditional postage meters print an indicia on a mailpiece as evidence that postage has been paid. Traditional mechanical postage meters create the indicia using a platen or a rotary drum which is moved into contact with the mailpiece to imprint the indicia thereon. While traditional postage meters have performed admirably over time, they are limited by the need to replace the platen or rotary drum when significant changes to the indicia image are made. Electronic postage meters use modern digital technology to overcome the need to replace the platen or drum when changes are made to the indicia.
Digital technology uses digital printheads to print postage indicia. Software drives the printheads to print indicia on the mailpieces. When an image is significantly changed, new software must be loaded into the digital postage meter. Thus, while the digital postage meters present advantages over traditional mechanical postage meters, in that they do not require replacement of parts in order to change the image, they do require changes to software in order to change the indicia image. Software changes, while more convenient to incorporate than hardware changes, can be problematic in that each time software is enhanced or changed, there is opportunity for new problems or “bugs” to be introduced into the software, thus affecting reliability. Additionally, software changes can be time consuming because they require reprogramming and testing.
Printing postage indicia images using electronic postage meters, such as electronic postage meters incorporating ink jet printing technology, requires that the image be converted into a bit mapped image. The bit map contains a dot matrix pattern representative of the desired indicia. Individual print elements in the print head, in response to the bit mapped image, are either electronically stimulated or not stimulated to expel or not expel, respectively, drops of ink from a reservoir onto a mailpiece.
Postage meters utilizing digital printing technology typically combine the fixed and variable image data into a complete bit map indicia image prior to printing. The image is conventionally combined by dedicating an electronic read-write memory (i.e., random access memory (RAM)) for use as temporary storage during the image element gathering stage. That is, while image data for the fixed and variable data are stored in a non-volatile memory (NVM), when an individual transaction takes place the postage meter microprocessor obtains the required variable and fixed data elements for that transaction from the non-volatile memory and combines and downloads the required variable image data into the electronic read-write memory as a bit map of the actual entire indicia to be printed, thereby using the RAM as temporary storage of the bit mailpiece image. The microprocessor then downloads the bit map image to the printhead for printing. However, since the variable image data changes from mailpiece to mailpiece, the microprocessor must edit the bit map image for every indicia printed. Editing an indicia bit map image significantly affects the performance and cost of the postage meter since it 1) takes time to do thereby reducing throughput; 2) requires a large amount of RAM; 3) demands the use of a high speed microprocessor; and 4) requires a large amount of additional code and associated memory to perform the editing function.
Electronic postage meters utilizing RAM for storage of bitmap indicia image require reconfiguration when fixed portions of the indicia image are changed. The reconfiguration is performed by the manufacturer by hardcoding the changes into software. The meter vault is not removable and thus the meter cannot be reconfigured at a customer location; it must be retrieved from the customer and reconfigured at a manufacturing facility. Similarly, different configuration and different software are used to print an indicia in a different language or different formats for post offices of various countries. Thus, a different meter must be built for each country of use.
Other electronic postage meters utilizing NVM for instructions to create bitmaps do not have removable meters vaults. Thus, when an image needs to be changed, for instance, when a meter will be used in a different country, the meter cannot be easily replaced.
One of the problems of the prior art is that the software needs revising when a different indicia format, such as a format for another country, needs to be printed. Another problem of the prior art is that the meter is not replaceable. Another problem of the prior art is that reconfiguration of the software cannot be performed at a customer site.